Obama stacks up lawyers as voting disputes escalate

The re-election campaign of current US President Barack Obama now includes a legion of lawyers as worries over the handling of new voter identification laws grow.

President Obama: Bring me laywers Russell Shively/Shutterstock.com

The Washington Post newspaper reports that President Obama’s team are particularly concerned about the implementation of new laws across the country, with their prime focus falling on the possibility of anti-fraud activists challenging legitimate voters and the handling of voter registrations in the most competitive states.

Lawyer stock piling

Republicans are also reportedly building their own legal teams for the election. But they say they’re concentrated on preventing fraud rather than turning away qualified voters.
The stock-piling of legal teams in the election run-up has been a dramatically increasing trend since the hotly disputed 2000 presidential contest. The Florida count in the Bush-Gore election was decided by just 537 votes, ultimately having to be resolved in the Supreme Court

Republican counter-attack

In Florida alone, President Obama is said to have more than the 5,800 lawyers that were involved four years ago. The Democrats had 3,200 lawyers at their disposal in 2004.
Meanwhile, Republican rival Mitt Romney has organised his own team, led by Ben Ginsberg of Washington DC-based outfit Patton Boggs. Although he did not reveal the number of lawyers involved, Mr Ginsberg said the campaign has been gratified by the ‘overwhelming number of attorneys who have volunteered to assist.’
He added: ‘We will have enough lawyers to handle all situations that arise.’